Careful readers of this blog may remember our last post about Baron Ambrosia, the host of Bronxnet’s show Bronx Flavor, and a YouTube clip showing him playing handball against someone dressed like Divine’s character in Pink Flamingos. The Baron has explained it all in his recently released episode: he’s playing for the Bronx against the evil “Queen of Westchester” to determine the ownership of City Island:

Baron Ambrosia plays handball-click to watch the episode on BronxFlavor.com

The Baron doesn’t provide an embed code for us to plant the show in our blog–and it’s not on YouTube–so click through Web 1.0 style and enjoy the contest! By the way: I’ve seen The Queen of Westchester many a time lurking through the Galleria in White Plains.

The latest thing in children’s play? The recess coach! This is a great listen from NPR’s Tell Me More program, featuring Jill Vialet (president and founder of Playworks), and NYC’s own Free Range Kids evangelist, Lenore Skenazy. Even Lenore, who scoffed at the idea at first (we’re guilty on that one too), sees some benefit beyond the knee-jerk “harumpfing.” This is mainly because no one is teaching kids any “actual reality” games to play anymore; the traditional way that kids learn games–from older kids–is going away because the older kids don’t know the games nowadays either!

Listen and decide for yourself… and remember that Streetplay’s Rulesheets are always there if you want: print them out and give them to your kids.

We have no idea of the context of this video–if it’s just for fun, or part of a past or future Bronx Flavor episode–but it’s great nonetheless. If anyone involved in this video–from the “real” handball guys to Divine’s love child to even The Baron himself–reads this post, please contact us at Streetplay, if just to say hello, or even if you want us to help with any street-game-themed upcoming episodes of Bronx Flavor!

Baron Ambrosia at An Beal Bocht in The Bronx, in the episode "Corned Beef Confidential"

In much the same way that Streetplay has documented the real-deal of sports in New York for the past ten years, underground filmmaker Justin Fornal, a.k.a. Baron Ambrosia, is documenting the culinary landscape of The Bronx with his hilarious drama/comedy/restaurant review series, Bronx Flavor. For those like myself not lucky enough to get BronxNet on cable, all the episodes are on The Baron’s site for your viewing pleasure.

According to a story in the NY Times, The Baron grew up in Killingworth, CT. The irony that now he’s in The Bronx and I’m in CT is not lost… still, it’s great to see The Baron go to all corners of the borough and review all the great food you can find. And if you’re a Bronx native, it’s fun to try and figure out exactly where all the locales are!

Like Streetplay, The Baron focuses on the real-deal of urban life: just like you won’t read stickball reports on ESPN.com, you probably won’t find most restaurants he visits in your Zagat Guide.

To celebrate the launch of our new blog, Streetplay founder Mick Greene visited the Bridgeport, CT office of Streetplay.com (my house) for the “2009 Summer Streetplay Summit.” We had coffee, lunch, and WordPress all in one day… but I stopped short of installing the Ubuntu OS on Mick’s new PC, instead opting to show him how to use the WordPress iPhone app.

...on the Bridgeport Riviera!

Seriously though… even if our contributions to the site are less numerous than they were 10 years ago, integrating this blog with Streetplay (we hope) will let us publish our thoughts and ideas on playing in the street more easily and effectively… as well as letting us have more folks write here as well. So stay tuned to http://blog.streetplay.com/ for continued great stuff!

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